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The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust and the Macerich Co. say it will take $325 million in new investment to transform the Gallery at Market East into what they are calling Fashion Outlets of Philadelphia.

That is on top of the $250 million already spent by PREIT to assemble what had been privately owned property in the project area, bringing the total development cost to about $575 million.

The rest of the area still owned by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority will be conveyed to the developers as part of the revitalization plan being reviewed by City Council.

Nearly 100 percent of the retail and restaurant space available at the 570,000-square-foot shopping center has been leased, they said during a presentation organized by Commercial Real Estate Women Network Lehigh Valley.

“There are people that, personally, I’d like to fit, but we just don’t have the room,” said Harrison, of Staten Island, N.Y.

The Lower Macungie Township complex will feature several Lehigh Valley firsts — Costco, Whole Foods and Nordstrom’s Rack — but declined to name retailers or restaurants that have not previously been announced.

A plan to revitalize the Hill District and Uptown with tax money from a redeveloped Civic Arena site is more complicated than envisioned, say officials who hope to make public a proposal in January.

“There are a lot of moving parts,” said Robert Rubinstein, acting executive director of Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, which is crafting a plan to pay for improvements.

An agreement reached this fall by city, neighborhood and Pittsburgh Penguins officials established conditions for the proposed $440 million project. The hockey team won the development rights to the site in a 2007 deal to build Consol Energy Center.

Among conditions in September’s agreement, the parties will borrow as much as $50 million, then use 65 percent of the anticipated increase in property tax money from the 28-acre site to pay for improvements and programs in the Hill and Uptown.

Cash-strapped Luzerne County has a claim on at least some of the $2 million left from the Coal Street widening project in Wilkes-Barre, but delays finalizing project expenses have prevented the county from receiving its share.

The amount of the county’s share also is unclear because the Wilkes-Barre Area School District may be entitled to some of the fund, officials say.

County Councilman Stephen A. Urban raised the issue during a budget work session last week, questioning why it’s taking years for the county to collect this money.

The $2 million stems from a Tax Incremental Financing plan, or TIF, that diverted tax revenue from new development along Highland Park Boulevard and at the Arena Hub Plaza to fund improvements to Mundy Street, Highland Park Boulevard and Coal Street .

Next week, developers will present their designs for the W and Element Hotels planned for 15th and Chestnut streets to the Center City Residents Association. The presentation is for information only: The planned project requires no zoning variances and can be built by right.

According to a description shared with PlanPhilly by an attorney working on the project, the hotels will have a total of 755 rooms. There will be 295 rooms in the four-star W Hotel, and 460 rooms in the three-star, extended-stay Element by Westin. The entire hotel operation will be managed by Starwood, a Connecticut-based hospitality company.

In the ongoing debate over whether the Hamilton Crossings shopping center should be financed with tax money, a common question is why developers can’t make do without it.

The proposed tax-increment financing plan is expected to stack up between $6 million and $6.5 million for the roughly $140 million project, or less than 5 percent of the total.

Some TIF plan opponents have said the developers, Tim Harrison, of Staten Island, N.Y., and The Goldenberg Group, of Blue Bell, Pa., ought to be able to come up with the relatively small sum without reaching into taxpayers’ pockets.

When Lehigh County Commissioners rejected a tax incentive plan last summer for a $140 million Costco, Target and Whole Foods complex in Lower Macungie Township, it appeared the project was dead on arrival.

The developer and local government officials had long maintained that if the county, township and East Penn School Board did not each sign off on a tax increment financing plan, the project could not move forward.

But now, the entity proposing the TIF says it can be approved even if one or more of the taxing bodies opts out, and they intend to press forward with it despite the county’s rejection.

“The TIF can legally proceed without the participation of the county,” said John Lushis Jr., solicitor for the Lehigh County Industrial Development Authority. “If their understanding was otherwise, then that’s not correct.”

Map of York County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The new year will bring a new West Manchester Mall, and developers said work could begin before winter ends.

“We’re trying to get started as early as we can. March is not an unreasonable target,” said Tony Ruggeri, co-founder of Dallas-based M&R Investors, which owns the mall.

The 32-year-old shopping hub at 1800 Loucks Road is set for a $47 million redevelopment that will change it from an enclosed mall to an outdoor plaza similar to Hunt Valley Towne Center in Maryland.

The York County commissioners and the West York school board recently approved a tax incentive financing (TIF) plan that will allow the mall to be revamped while receiving a limited tax break on the improved property.

City Council moved closer Thursday to approving millions in tax breaks for a contentious 50-story hotel development in the heart of Center City.

The $280 million tower would include two hotel brands – W and Elements – built on a parking lot at 15th and Chestnut Streets, a half-acre plot adjacent to the disastrous 1991 fire that consumed One Meridian Plaza and resulted in the deaths of three firefighters.

The developers, Brook Lenfest and Jeffrey Cohen, say they can’t build there without tax increment financing (TIF), a deal in which they would borrow $33 million and repay the loan through tax breaks authorized by the city.

The project – and TIFs in general – has its critics, and the Council chamber was packed Thursday with lobbyists, supporters, and opponents, who waited out a hearing that lasted more than five hours.

Lower Macungie commissioners have approved an agreement to apply for and sponsor $2.75 million worth of state grants that would help fund a planned Costco-anchored shopping center.

The board on Thursday night unanimously approved an agreement with the developers of the planned $140 million Hamilton Crossings shopping center to serve as the public applicant for grants from the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

The money will be used for remediation and/or development of the property at the Route 222 bypass and Krocks Road if the project ultimately moves forward. The developer plans to bring a Whole Foods and Target to the shopping center.

The developers — the Goldenberg Group of Montgomery County and Tim Harrison of Staten Island, N.Y. — hit a snag earlier this year when Lehigh County commissioners rejected a plan that would have allowed the project to benefit from tax increment financing, an arrangement under which tax revenues from the shopping center would be used to finance the project.

Developers of the proposed $140 million Costco-anchored shopping center in Lower Macungie Township have said they will walk away without tax increment financing, which required support from the county, township and the East Penn School District.

County commissioners were considered the most significant hurdle to the TIF proposal, which would allow up to $7 million in tax dollars generated by the shopping center to be used to finance the work.

Commissioners shot down the TIF in a 6-3 vote that broke from their usual voting blocs and surprised many. Commissioners Tom Creighton, Percy Dougherty and David Jones voted in favor of the proposal; Commissioners Scott Ott, Lisa Scheller, Mike Schware, Brad Osborne, Vic Mazziotti and Dan McCarthy voted against it.

Lower Macungie commissioners Thursday formally made known their unanimous support of tax financing for the proposed $140 million Costco-anchored shopping center in their township, and they’re asking Lehigh County commissioners to back it as well.

Township commissioners decided at their meeting to send a letter to the county board, urging it to approve a controversial tax increment financing plan for the Hamilton Crossings shopping center and allow development of a project that would bring tax dollars and jobs.

County commissioners twice have put off taking action on the proposal.

The township board had hoped to vote Thursday on the TIF proposal, which would allow up to $7 million in tax dollars generated by the shopping center be used to finance the work. But they said they’re required to wait until after the county commissioners chime in.

Whole Foods Market has agreed to join Costco and Target as an anchor at the proposed $140 million Hamilton Crossings shopping center in Lower Macungie.

Jeremy Fogel of the Goldenberg Group of Montgomery County, one of two developers planning the project on the Route 222 bypass, confirmed Tuesday that the grocery store chain is the “high end” food store that he and Tim Harrison of Staten Island, N.Y., plan to bring to the shopping center.

“We have been working with Whole Foods for some time, but only yesterday have been authorized to announce that we have an approved deal with Whole Foods,” Fogel said. “We are currently negotiating a lease for them to become part of the Hamilton Crossings Shopping Center.

Fogel said the addition of Whole Foods enhances the appeal of the proposed development.

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority board got the ball rolling Thursday for the largest piece of tax increment financing in the city’s history — an $80 million to $90 million package that would fund roads, utilities, parks and other public improvements for a proposed $900 million office and residential development in Hazelwood.

While URA board members unanimously approved preliminary plans for the funding in Hazelwood, some members criticized city council for holding up a $50 million TIF for a proposed $400 million to $500 million Buncher Co. development in the Strip District and wondered whether the Hazelwood package would suffer a similar fate.

“This is the beginning of a very long process,” said URA board member Jim Ferlo, a Democratic state senator from Highland Park. “There are going to be a lot of hurdles, if not some significant roadblocks.”

Developers of a proposed shopping center that would bring a Costco Warehouse and Target to Lower Macungie Township pitched their project to the East Penn School Board Monday night in anticipation of a future request for Tax Increment Financing.

Staten Island developer Timothy Harrison presented his vision for Hamilton Crossings – a $120 million, 580,000 square-foot shopping center proposed on 62 acres on both sides of Krocks Road between the Route 222 Bypass and Hamilton Boulevard. He told the school board he would be returning to ask the district to participate on a TIF committee.

Harrison and his partner Jeremy Fogel, executive director of The Goldenberg Group in Blue Bell, discussed financial hurdles involved with the site that are caused by geotechnical issues resulting from more than 70 years of use as an iron-ore mine. They told directors that much of the site consists of mine wash, a pancake batter-like substance that has to be removed and mixed with concrete or rock before it is returned to the ground. Harrison said the ground could not support buildings or a parking lot without remediation.